Cardio3 acquires CAR technology

Cardio3 BioSciences SA has acquired a portfolio of immuno-oncology assets in the US thereby expanding its therapeutic focus to cancer in addition to cardiovascular medicine. The Belgium-based company specialises in regenerative medicine.

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Cardio3 BioSciences SA has acquired a portfolio of immuno-oncology assets in the US thereby expanding its therapeutic focus to cancer in addition to cardiovascular medicine. The Belgium-based company specialises in regenerative medicine.

In a deal announced on 6 January, Cardio3 said it is prepared to spend $10 million upfront in cash and shares for a university spin-out with patented chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technology. The company, OnCyte, is a division of the New Hampshire-based biotech incubator Celdara Medical LLC. OnCyte’s technology is based on research conducted by Charles Sentman, a professor at Dartmouth College. The company’s portfolio includes one Phase 1-ready asset, two programmes in preclinical development and an allogeneic T cell platform.

Cardio3 will pay Celdara $10 million initially with commitments of up to $50 million for the successful development and regulatory approval of the first product. There could be additional milestone payments of up to $21 million for each successor product. In addition, Celdara will receive up to $80 million in sales milestones when net sales exceed $1 billion as well as royalties ranging from 5% to 8% of sales.

OnCyte’s lead product, which is expected to enter a human trial in the first quarter, is an autologous CAR therapy, CM-CS1, for haematologic malignancies. Like CAR therapies being developed by other companies, CM-CS1, is produced by harvesting T cells from a patient, engineering them to express specific chimeric receptors, and then reinfusing them back into the patient. Upon administration, the receptors are expected to recognize and kill cancer cells.

Unlike the current CAR therapies which express the CD19 protein however, the OnCyte technology uses a receptor that appears on Natural (NK) cells. T cells are engineered to express this receptor, NKG2D.

In an interview Cardio3’s chief executive, Christian Homsy, said the Natural Killer cell receptor technology is potentially applicable to a wide range of cancers of both solid and haematological types. “Potentially this is much more powerful than the existing technology”, he commented.

Cardio3 BioSciences’ core technology is an autologous cell therapy for the treatment of heart failure which is being tested in a Phase 3 clinical study.

Co-founder and editor of Evernow Publishing Ltd.
International journalist with previous full-time editorial positions at Informa Plc, Thomson Reuters, McGraw-Hill and Dow Jones Inc. Have worked as a correspondent covering finance in New York, Amsterdam, Brussels and London, and covering healthcare and the life sciences in London.